On Tuesday 3rd November 2015 pupils from across Yorkshire and the Humber were invited to take part in the return of a revamped version of ‘Going Global’, an event for Year 10 and 11 pupils at The University of Hull.
The main focus of the day was to motivate pupils with language learning and open their eyes and minds to opportunities out there in the wider world, in terms of careers, job opportunities and where languages can take you.
65 pupils from four schools from as far afield as Bradford attended the event: Sirius North Academy, Beverley Grammar School, Grange Technology College and Hull Collegiate School. The day commenced with a lively introduction about Languages for Life from Claire Barber, Project Manager of Routes into Languages Yorkshire and The Humber, followed by a wonderfully entertaining and engaging presentation by Student Ambassador Jessica Watson, who spoke about her year abroad in France.
After a short break, pupils were treated to a keynote speech by Graham Webb, Business Development Director at Translators Village, Leeds. Graham highlighted the importance of languages in the Global market today, what skills languages and language degrees can equip you with and how this can help in future careers.
This was followed by the first language taster session of the day, in which pupils got to sample ‘different’ languages which they hadn’t learnt before, namely Chinese, Japanese, Italian and Russian. Then it was the lunch break which gave the students an opportunity to take a campus tour and they got a glimpse into student life here at the University of Hull.
The afternoon session commenced with a careers and languages workshop, led by Amy Blenkiron from the University’s Careers service. This again concentrated pupils’ minds on career opportunities with languages and engaged students in a fun MI5 exercise and a quiz. Afterwards it was the last taster session of the day, where many pupils ended the day on a high from making paper hats in their Chinese sessions.
The day was a great success as pupils gave very positive feedback and commented that the day had been ‘brilliant’, ‘fun’ and some pupils even went so far as to say: ‘It has made me consider pursuing languages in the future’! That’s just what we were aiming for!! Thanks to all who attended.
Claire Barber, Project Manager – Routes into Languages Yorkshire and The Humber
